The aggrieved husband and the senator are in a high-stakes cat-and-mouse game that shows no signs of subsiding. The winner could define the senator’s political future and influence the Republican Party’s 2010 electoral chances in both Washington and Nevada.

Ross Baker, a political scientist who studies Congress at Rutgers University, said he can recall few other episodes in Washington that resemble this case of a lawmaker being aggressively pursued with what he and others have called “vengeance.”

“These are deaths by 1,000 cuts,” Baker said. “Ensign can’t really land on his feet.”

Oh, noezzz! Poor lil' Johnny Casino may never recover from this? Whatever will we do with no Johnny Casino to kick around any more?

But while Doug Hampton may be the messenger, it is the message that can be so damaging to Ensign and his party.

The story of the conservative social values politician who had an affair with the wife of his one-time best friend, and the potential ethics violations that may have followed, is not one Republican leaders want to hear over and over again as the campaign season begins to unfold.

Even though Ensign told the radio interviewer various Republican candidates have sought his help on their campaigns, many Republican candidates in Nevada have made it clear they would prefer not to have him on the trail.

So as much as Johnny and his GOoPer buddies are trying to blame Doug Hampton for the big, bad sh*tstorm heading his way, it seems like Poor Lil' Johnny has no one to blame but himself for this increasingly ugly hot mess. Johnny Casino is quickly becoming political roadkill, and that's simply because he preached a different set of values than he practiced. Why is it that Republicans preach "personal responsibility" to everyone but themselves?